Much
of the world agrees that mercury contamination is a major public and
environmental health concern, and nearly a hundred nations have proven
it by signing the United Nations' Minamata Convention on Mercury.
But experts say the devil may lie in the details and add that reducing
mercury use and environmental levels won't be a quick process.
"Essentially,
what we have managed to do is to persuade the international community
to send a very clear signal—the use of mercury in industrial processes,
in cosmetics, in medical equipment, is essentially over," Achim Steiner,
executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, told the
press in Geneva last week. "It doesn't mean that all mercury will
disappear tomorrow," he added, instead predicting a 30-year phase-out
period.
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